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Concours d'Elegance adds Yatooma's as beneficiary, could become its focus

Since its founding 36 years ago, the Concours d'Elegance of America at St. John's has largely been known as one of the top collector and vintage car shows and auctions in the country.

Lesser known is the fact that the event's organizer is a nonprofit by virtue of educating the public on the history of the automobile while raising money for other groups in the process.

The Concours d'Elegance board chairman is Larry Moss, managing director, Moss Financial Group in Birmingham. Keith Crain, chairman of Crain Communications Inc., is a director on the Concours board.

Since moving the annual event to the Inn at St. John's in Plymouth from Oakland University's Meadow Brook Hall in 2011, the Concours has split roughly $20,000 largely among three nonprofits: College for Creative Studies, Leader Dogs for the Blind and Hospice of Michigan.

This year's event on July 27 will also benefit Yatooma's Foundation for the Kids, an addition that will mark a new fundraising direction.

"Our focus is ultimately going to be on one charity, not three or four charities," said Moss. "I fully expect ... Yatooma's will be the primary beneficiary beginning with the 2015 event."

Moss admitted he has a soft spot for kids, and Yatooma's mission of helping children who've lost a parent is a cause many may feel compelled to support. Focusing on a single charity will create more impact, he said.

The Concours reported revenue of $779,147 from grants, sponsorships, donations and programmatic/ticket revenue and an operating excess of $139,517 in 2012, the year of its most recent tax filing.

"With Norman Yatooma's charity you (also) get a give and take," Moss said.

Though the event's organizers have never asked the other nonprofit beneficiaries for assistance, Yatooma "comes to the table and says, 'We're going to help,' " he said.

Though still a fledgling nonprofit, Yatooma's Foundation for the Kids and its founder, the Bloomfield Hills attorney and founder of Norman Yatooma & Associates PC, have forged relationships with companies and people including Art Van Furniture Inc., Kroger Co. and the Ilitch family. Each make in-kind donations that help the foundation stretch its budget to provide a child and family with a variety of services, Yatooma said.

The foundation also gets pro bono advertisements from local advertisers to help promote its mission, Yatooma said.

The foundation is operating on a budget of just more than $400,000, a level that enabled it last year to provide 500-600 children with food, clothing, shelter, grief counseling and mentoring, and their surviving parents with training and assistance in finding work.

This year, Concours d'Elegance will also include a dozen of the children who Yatooma's Foundation supports on a panel to pick their favorite cars.

"It's a really nice experience for these kids to be treated differently for a good reason rather than a bad reason," Yatooma said.

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